How to Lead a Family Devotional

We’re all busy, our kids are growing fast, and culture moves at breakneck speed. We all want to make the most of the time with our kids and form a solid foundation of faith—but sometimes, it’s hard to know where to start. Here is a guide to creating a simple family devotional, so you can create memories and grow in your faith together as a family.

1. Set a Time

The more your family grows, the more important it is to place family devotional time on the calendar. Whether you decide to facilitate family devotionals weekly, biweekly, or monthly, it’s best to be blocked off on everyone’s schedules ahead of time. 

2. Open in Prayer

Open with a short prayer or empower one of the kids to open in prayer. Make it short, and ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you in your time together. 

3. Read 

Reading the Bible as a family is powerful. It gives everyone a safe place to ask questions and explore God’s Word. If you have small children, use an easy-to-understand translation such as NIV (New International Version) or NLT (New Living Translation), or NIrV (New International Reader’s Version). Don’t know where to start? Here are some ideas: 

• Study a specific book of the Bible. Read one chapter at a time together, such as Ephesians or Romans.
  
• If you have young children, utilize the YouVersion Bible App for Kids to keep them engaged.
• Study a character in the Bible, such as Ruth, David, or Paul. Read verses or passages about their life and when you’ve run out of verses, move on to a different character. 
• Facilitate a Bible Study based on your family values. For example, if you want to teach your kids to be kind, read verses about kindness each week until you run out. Then move on to a different family value, such as generosity. 
• Complete a devotional together from the YouVersion Bible App.
• Get a devotional book from Parent Cue to guide you. Other options: 
  • Foundations 
  • Kingdom Family Devotions  
  • Roar Like A Lion
  • How Great Is Our God 

• Use the one we created for your first one (and use it as a template for future family devotions). 
• Use the devotionals created from Parent Cue. Sort by topic or age group and download the app for easy accessibility. 

4. Discuss

After reading the Scriptures, open up a time for discussion and questions. Think about how the verses may apply to something your family is facing or learning. Brainstorm ideas of how to live out the virtues discussed in the Scriptures. 

5. Close in Prayer

Ask each family member to share a personal prayer request. Create a safe place to share anything that might be weighing anyone down. If you want, write the prayer requests down in a family journal so you can look back and thank God for the prayers He’s answered. You can close in prayer yourself or have each person pray for the person on their left.